2017 International Conference on High Voltage Engineering and Power System

October 2-5, 2017, Bali, Indonesia

Performances of Long-term Coastal Field Aged

Silicone-coated Ceramic Insulators under Clean and
Salt Fog Conditions
Dini Fauziah*, Heldi Alfiadi, Rachmawati, Suwarno
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
*dini_fauziah24@yahoo.com

Abstract—Ceramic insulator is a kind of insulator that is This paper reports long-term coastal aged ceramic
used most widely especially in Indonesia. It has good property insulator with and without RTV silicone rubber coating
in both electrical and mechanical strength but has hydrophilic testing under clean and salt fog condition to know both
behavior that susceptible for leakage current flowed on the insulators condition with rise of voltage.
surface of insulator. Based on previous research, leakage
current can be a good indicator to diagnose insulator surface II. EXPERIMENTS
condition. This paper presents leakage current performance of
a long-term field aged ceramic insulator with and without RTV Experiment was conducted to know the insulator’s
silicone rubber coating under clean fog and salt fog condition. performance after exposed to natural coastal aging in
The insulators have been installed in the coastal field for 5 Pangandaran beach along 5 years and 4 months. The aging
years and 4 months. The insulators were investigated in was experienced in heavily salt polluted area which
laboratory to know the effect of voltage rise to the aged powered continuously by voltage 11 kV without any
insulator condition under clean fog and salt fog condition. maintenance. Insulators were tested in laboratory by
Monitored parameters are magnitude and THD of leakage
exposed voltage rise from 11 kV to 50 kV in clean fog
current. The result has shown that with voltage rise, coated
insulator has better performance in both clean fog and salt fog
condition, and then 11 kV until flashover occurs in salt fog
condition especially to increase the flashover voltage of aged condition with monitored parameters were magnitude and
ceramic insulator. THD of leakage current.
A. Samples
Keywords—leakage current; ceramic insulator; RTV silicone
rubber coating; long term aging; clean fog; salt fog Samples used in the experiment were 20 kV class pin-post
type ceramic insulators. 1 sample was uncoated and 1
I. INTRODUCTION sample was coated with RTV silicone rubber by using high
There are a large amount of ceramic outdoor insulators pressure nozzle with surface thickness of 0,3 ± 0,05 mm.
located at coastal areas with high salt pollution, especially in The insulators has creepage distance of 500 mm and widely
Indonesia. The salt pollution can accumulate on the used in Indonesian State Electricity Corporation (PT. PLN)
insulator’s surface and make a layer that can decrease network.
insulator resistivity until it becomes susceptible to leakage
current flow, particularly if the insulator is exposed to high
humidity. The leakage current may degrade the insulator
surface leading to the failure of the insulators [1]. Leakage
current can be used as a signature of the insulators because
it represents the surface condition of insulators and can be
an accurate diagnostic tool for flashover warning [2-4].
One of the solutions to improve ceramic insulator
performance was by coating insulator surface with Room
Temperature Vulcanization (RTV) silicone rubber. Previous
research has reported that RTV silicone rubber coating for
ceramic insulator can improve its performance because it
a. Coated insulator b. Uncoated insulator
has hydrophobic behavior [5-8] and the coating also
improves surface smoothness of ceramic insulator [9]. Fig 1. Coated and uncoated insulator conditions after 5 years and 4 months
aging in the field

978-1-5386-0945-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

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 Fig 3 shows one line diagram of leakage current
measurement. The tested insulator was placed in the
chamber along measurement. Leakage current waveforms
including low and high frequency components were
obtained. The digital data was transferred to a personal
computer through a GPIB for further analysis.

FFT was conducted in order to know harmonic content

and calculate Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of leakage
current so the condition of leakage current wave can be
diagnosed. The THD is defined as the total ratio of the
harmonic components and the fundamental which can be
expressed as follow.
Fig 2. Configuration of insulators aging at coastal area

Fig 1 shows coated and uncoated insulator conditions

after 5 years and 4 months aging that used as tested samples (1)
in laboratory, while Fig 2 shows configuration of insulators
where aging was conducted along 5 years and 4 months. Where I1 = 1st harmonic (fundamental)
In = nth harmonic for n = 2, 3, 4, ….
B. Experimental Set up
The insulators were tested in laboratory by exposed voltage III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
rise from 11 kV to 50 kV in clean fog condition, and then 11 The main purpose of the research was to test insulator
kV until flashover occurs in salt fog condition. The testing performance after 5 years and 4 months aging with voltage
was conducted in a chamber which made from aluminum rise under clean and salt fog condition with leakage current
panel with dimension of 900 x 900 x 1200 mm3 to simulate parameter.
pollution to the samples. The front opening of the test A. Leakage current Magnitude and THD
chamber was made from acrylic to facilitate observation on
Leakage current magnitude and THD were an important
the sample surface.
parameter to know insulator condition. From the
Clean fog was made by clean water (nonconductive experiment, we can reveal RTV silicone coating impact to
water) to expose light condition to the insulator while salt ceramic insulator performance under clean and salt fog
fog was made by Pangandaran sea water with conductivity condition with voltage rise. Comparison of the parameters
51 mS/cm to expose severe condition. From both under both conditions are as follows.
experiments, we can see the performance of coated and
uncoated insulators when the same condition occurred in the
field.

C. Leakage current measurement

The leakage current flowed on the insulator surface was
measured by measuring the voltage across a series
resistance in variable resistor using a Digital Oscilloscope
with digitizer of 8 bit, bandwidth of 100 MHz, and the
maximum sampling rate of 1 GS/s. The circuit of leakage
current measurement is as follow.
RESISTOR

CHAMBER

CONTROL
DIVIDER INSULATOR
AC TABLE
CAPACITOR

TRANSFORMER Fig 4. Dependences of leakage current magnitude of coated and uncoated

insulators on applied voltage under clean fog condition
OSCILLOSCOPE PC
VARIABLE
RESISTOR Fig 4 shows comparison of leakage current magnitude of
coated and uncoated insulators under clean fog condition.
Under clean fog condition, leakage current magnitude of
both coated and uncoated insulators increased linearly in
Fig 3. Leakage current measurement circuit
which uncoated insulator has higher magnitude. It shows

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that the coating can suppress leakage current under clean
fog condition when applied voltages are 11-50 kV.
increased linearly with the applied voltage while at high fog
conductivity the oscillation behaviour of leakage current
magnitude dependence on applied voltage was observed due
to the wetting effect of sample surface by the fog and drying
effect caused by the higher leakage current [10]. The high
magnitude of leakage current in turn will heat the insulator
surface and may promote the degradation of the insulator.

Fig 5. Dependences of leakage current THD of coated and uncoated

insulators on applied voltage under clean fog condition

Fig 5 shows comparison of leakage current THD of

coated and uncoated insulators under clean fog condition.
THD of leakage current has the opposite trend with the Fig 7. Dependences of leakage current THD of coated and uncoated
magnitude. The higher voltage given, THD was decrease insulators on applied voltage under salt fog condition
because rise of harmonic content slower than fundamental
magnitude so ratio of them was smaller. Fig 7 shows comparison of leakage current THD of
coated and uncoated insulators under salt fog condition.
THD of leakage current under salt fog condition has the
same trend with the magnitude which THD of coated and
uncoated insulator increased continously until flahover
occurred. But when applied voltage was 60 kV for coated
insulator, the THD decreased before flashover because the
magnitude was very high while harmonic content increase
not so high so ratio of them was smaller at that condition.
B. Leakage current Waveform
Based on previous research, leakage current waveform
strongly correlated with insulator condition [11]. Leakage
current waveforms analysis under clean and salt fog
condition with voltage rise are as follows.

Fig 6. Dependences of leakage current magnitude of coated and uncoated

insulators on applied voltage under salt fog condition

Fig 6 shows comparison of leakage current magnitude of

coated and uncoated insulators under salt fog condition.
Leakage current magnitude of coated insulator under salt
fog condition was increased continously until flashover
occurs at 60 kV while uncoated insulator was flashover at
50 kV with fluctuative leakage current magnitude especially
when magnitude decrease at voltage 35 kV and increase at
45 kV.
Under fog condition, leakage current magnitude increase
with fog conductivity. Compared to the leakage current
magnitude under clean fog, the leakage current magnitude
under salt fog was much higher than those from clean fog. Fig 8. Dependences of leakage current waveform of coated insulator on
At clean fog condition, the leakage current magnitude applied voltage under clean fog condition

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 Fig 8 shows leakage current waveforms of coated
insulator under clean fog condition with voltage 11-50 kV.
The leakage current has low magnitude and low THD with
almost sinusoidal waveform. Based on [11], it concluded as
normal condition because no discharge was observed.
Fig 9. Dependences of leakage current waveform of uncoated insulator on
applied voltage under clean fog condition
Fig 9 shows leakage current waveform of uncoated
insulator under clean fog condition with voltage 11-50 kV.
Under clean fog condition no discharge was observed at
leakage current waveforms both coated and uncoated
insulators. Uncoated insulator has more sinusoidal
waveform with phase angle closer to the phase of source
voltage. The result also showed that the leakage current
magnitude of uncoated insulator was higher than coated
insulator. Based on [11], under clean fog condition uncoated
insulator has high surface conductance and high electric
field.
Fig 10. Dependences of leakage current waveform of coated insulator on
applied voltage under salt fog condition
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Fig 11. Dependences of leakage current waveform of uncoated insulator on
applied voltage under salt fog condition
Fig 10 and Fig 11 shows leakage current waveform of
coated and uncoated insulators under salt fog condition with
voltage 11 kV until flashover. Under salt fog condition,
discharge was observed in coated insulator since voltage 45
kV and the discharge was increased until flashover occurrs
at 60 kV. When pre flashover condition occurred, the
discharge was high in both positive and negative cycle.
While in uncoated insulator discharge was observed at
voltage 45 kV and flashover occurred at 50 kV with
asymmetrical leakage current waveform where discharge
was dominant in negative cycle.
As applied voltage increase, the ionization may take
place on the insulator surface. Electric discharge may take
place if initial charge of electron is available and
instantaneous applied voltage exceeding a certain threshold
value. This phenomenon could cause asymmetrical leakage
current waveform. At positive dominant waveform
distortion, the initial electrons were ejected from the fog
side. At uncoated insulator, when flashover occurs larger
distortion of leakage current waveforms were observed at
negative half cycles. This means that the discharges were
initiated from sample side insulator surface was very
conductive at that condition. [10].
C. Condition Diagnosis of Insulators
Based on previous research, each of leakage current
magnitude and THD were good indicators of insulator
surface. But cross product of magnitude and THD was more
reliable because it gives better correlation to insulator
surface condition [11]. In order to know the condition, cross
product between magnitude and THD was used.

Fig 12. Dependences of cross product of leakage current magnitude and
THD of coated and uncoated insulators on applied voltage under clean fog
condition
Fig 12 shows cross product of leakage current of coated
and uncoated insulator under clean fog condition. Under
clean fog, cross product of leakage current magnitude and
THD showed linear increase with uncoated insulator was
higher. It shows that based on leakage current parameter
under clean fog condition coated insulator has better
performance.
Fig 13. Dependences of cross product of leakage current magnitude and
THD of coated and uncoated insulator on applied voltage under salt fog
condition
Fig 13 shows cross product of leakage current of coated
and uncoated insulator under salt fog condition. Under salt
fog, both of insulators exposed to flashover with coated
insulator has higher flashover voltage that uncoated
insulator. From Fig 13 we can see that coating can improve
ceramic insulator performance when it exposed to severe
condition with high humidity and high fog conductivity.
The flashover occurrence showed in Fig 14. Coated
insulator exposed to flashover at voltage 60 kV while
uncoated insulator at 50 kV.
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cap
pin
a. Coated insulator b. Uncoated insulator
(flashover at 60 kV) (flashover at 50 kV)
Fig 14. Insulator condition while flashover occurs
IV. CONCLUSION
RTV silicone rubber coating can improve ceramic insulator
performance under clean fog and salt fog condition with
leakage current and flashover voltage indicators. By cross
product of leakage current magnitude and THD, we can
diagnose insulator surface condition more reliable because it
includes both leakage current parameters in one analysis
which each of parameter was an important indicator that
can’t be used separately.
At salt fog condition with conductivity 51 mS/cm,
uncoated insulator flashover at voltage 50 kV while coated
insulator flashover at voltage 60 kV. It shows that with RTV
silicone rubber coating, flashover voltage of field aged
ceramic insulator was increased, so it can be a good
recommendation to use the coating for ceramic insulator
which applied in coastal area with high pollution and high
humidity condition.
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